2019

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The Uber Of Solar

Jim Conca

One small solar company in Washington State decided to approach the problematic business model of the solar industry by building a decentralizedservice platform in the otherwise centralized and old fashioned construction market - think the Uber of Solar.

Fashion 419
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Rethinking food packaging can dent the plastic pollution crisis

GreenBiz

Although the global economy is increasingly wrapped in plastic, companies of all sizes are dramatically reducing their use of it.

Plastics 419
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4 Ways to Reduce Waste In Your Own Home

The Environmental Blog

Now more than ever, we need to do our bit for the environment. From the comfort of our own homes, we can commit to positive changes that will make an impact. If you haven’t ever stopped to think about what products you buy and how you consume and dispose of them – now’s the time. By making small changes, we can all help to reduce the rubbish that we produce within our homes.

Waste 406
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The largest green wall in Europe will absorb 8 tons of air pollution per year

Inhabitat - Innovation

Located in London, U.K., the Citicape House by Sheppard Robson will feature a 40,000-square-foot green wall, the largest in Europe, that sets the standard for urban green development in the city.

Europe 357
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The Key to Sustainable Energy Optimization: A Data-Driven Approach for Manufacturing

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. ♻️ Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets. 📊 Join us for a practical webinar hosted by Kevin Kai Wong of Emergent Ene

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Planners call on government for stronger direction on climate action

Envirotec Magazine

An overwhelming majority of UK planners want the next government to give stronger direction and more resources to enable local planners to deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050. A recent survey by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), revealed that even though 79% of respondents agreed that climate action should be a top priority for the profession, only 17% felt their nation’s planning system or policy framework was well equipped enough to deal with the current climate crisis.

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Green Ammonia – Potential as an Energy Carrier and Beyond

CleanTech Group

The world is categorically dependent on ammonia. Today, half the world’s food production depends on it for increasing crop yield, resulting in a.

Energy 184

More Trending

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Congress introduces climate bill to reach 100% clean energy by 2050

Solar Power World

A new bill introduced today by Rep. Don McEachin and co-sponsored by over 150 members could set the United States on a path to an economy powered by 100% clean energy by mid-century. If passed into law, the 100% Clean Economy Act of 2019 would require federal agencies to create a plan, using existing authorities,… The post Congress introduces climate bill to reach 100% clean energy by 2050 appeared first on Solar Power World.

Law 144
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Vulnerable communities face larger threats under EPA’s proposed science rule

Grist

Scientists across the country expressed alarm this month over a leaked proposal that details a potential Environmental Protection Agency policy that could significantly limit what research it uses to create public health regulations. The draft obtained by the New York Times is a revision of a draft released in April 2018 in which the agency called for transparency in scientific data, including people’s private health information.

Health 143
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Pennsylvania Communities Grow Wary of Worsening Air Pollution as Petrochemical Industry Arrives

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 9 mins While the Ohio River Valley, long home to the coal and steel industries, is no stranger to air pollution, the region’s natural gas boom and burgeoning petrochemical industry threaten to erase the gains of recent decades. Concerns about air quality, which has already begun declining nationally since 2016 , are growing rapidly for those living in the shadow of Shell’s $6 billion plastics plant under construction along the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania’s Beaver County.

Pollution 142
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Everybody’s talking about Tesla’s Cybertruck

Charged

In show business, when you don’t like an act, but you don’t want to say anything negative, you say it’s “interesting.” Well, the word “interesting” is getting a lot of use today, after Tesla unveiled what is definitely its most radical-looking vehicle, and perhaps the most radical-looking production vehicle in automotive history. I think the first step on the road to acceptance of the Cybertruck is to forget about calling it a pickup.

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Electrofuels Are the Future: The Driving Force to Decarbonizing Heavy Transport

Speaker: Ayesha Choudhury - Senior Vice President, Head of Capital Markets at Infinium

With the first wave of the energy transition, renewable energy sources (such as solar and wind) have begun replacing coal power generation. However, some sectors are lagging behind and struggling to decarbonize more than others, including large-scale transportation like commercial aviation, shipping, and rail transit. Electrofuels (aka eFuels) are the next generation of solutions to help the hardest-to-abate sectors pivot from their reliance on fossil fuels.

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Nuclear Power Does Slow Climate Change

Jim Conca

Why are we trying to close nuclear plants that have been relicensed as safe for another 20 yrs? To save a penny to spend on renewables and say that helps climate change? As all climate scientists agree, prematurely closing nuclear plants is bad for the climate. And it doesn’t save any money at all.

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These 21 projects are democratizing data for farmers

GreenBiz

Articial intelligence and big data may help produce more food, use less water, limit resource consumption, redirect food waste and reduce food prices.

Waste 519
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The 100% Clean Economy Act: We’re Making Climate Progress, And It’s Thanks to You.

Defend Our Future

Back when I first came on to the Defend Our Future team earlier in the year, I wrote a blog where I tried to make it as clear as possible why Defend Our Future exists : because Congress, as an institution, hadn’t done nearly enough to fight climate change. Because if we didn’t stand together and demand action, action would never come. Yesterday, we may have started to see the tide finally start to turn in Congress.

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Prefab homes on stilts include solar panels, water collection systems and organic gardens

Inhabitat - Innovation

Bali-based architect Alexis Dornier has unveiled a beautiful, eco-friendly concept for a series of prefabricated homes that are elevated off the landscape on stilts.

Organic 363
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AR/VR Simulations for Sustainable, Regenerative, Circular Cities

Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

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Fast Fashion: the second biggest polluter on Earth

Envirotec Magazine

Dr. Akmez Nabeerasool is a Senior Project Manager at Arvia Technology, a provider of advanced tertiary water and wastewater treatment systems. Below he discusses the issue of water pollution in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is reliant on water. Without it, the majority of manufacturing processes wouldn’t be possible. To put it into perspective, one cotton t-shirt uses enough drinking water to sustain one human for three years; 2,700 litres.

Fashion 304
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The Long Duration Energy Storage Search – How Close are we to Low Costs and Zero Carbon?

CleanTech Group

As renewable energy continues to proliferate, a gap in the market is appearing for long duration energy storage demand that lithium-ion, coal-plants and.

Lithium 158
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Animal Agriculture Costs More In Health Damage Than It Contributes To The Economy

Forbes Green Tech

As with the climate, the chief culprit is meat and dairy. But when it comes to particulate pollution, the worst offender is poultry.

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Installed solar capacity is now greater than oil in the United States

Solar Power World

According to a review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the first three-quarters of 2019, solar and wind provided nearly six-times as much new generating capacity as natural gas in September. New capacity placed into service that month included 359 MW of wind and… The post Installed solar capacity is now greater than oil in the United States appeared first on Solar Power World.

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How Digital Transformation will Bend the Curve of the Linear Economy Toward the Circular

Speaker: Bruce Armstrong Taylor, Co-Founder & Managing Director of SmartNations Foundation, Jimmy Jia, Venture Partner at Pi Labs, Fabienne Durand, Senior Advisor to the SmartNations Foundation, & Roger Strukhoff, Executive Director of the Tau Institute

The Climate 4.0 Economy. Climate change is here. We see it in many ways already. Weather catastrophes: Texas freezing over, the wildfires of California, the increasingly unpredictable violence and frequency of hurricanes, the rapid melting and disappearance of polar ice caps. Much more evidence all around us. What can we do in our corporate organizations, in our homes and communities, to change the current course?

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Your state’s air pollution might be coming from another state’s power plants

Grist

Air pollution from power plants caused 16,000 premature deaths in the United States in 2014, according to new research on the sources and destinations of fine particulate matter produced by electricity generation. The state-by-state study had some other troubling findings, too: Exposure to the toxic pollutants varies by race and income, and in many cases fine particulate matter travels beyond the state where it was produced.

Pollution 120
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Stanford Study Says Renewable Power Eliminates Argument for Using Carbon Capture with Fossil Fuels

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 7 mins New research from Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson questions the climate and health benefits of carbon capture technology against simply switching to renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Carbon capture technology is premised on two possible approaches to reducing climate pollution: removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere anywhere in the world, an approach generally known as direct air capture, or removing it directly from the emissions source, such as

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Investments in ‘people and places’ start to demonstrate impact in Opportunity Zones

Impact Alpha

ImpactAlpha, Aug. 28 – Capital is finally flowing to projects in U.S. Opportunity Zones that promote inclusive development and community empowerment. In other words, impact is investable. Locally led development efforts, homegrown startup activity and affordable housing investments from Erie, Pennsylvania to South Los Angeles are demonstrating that capital-gains tax incentives available in Opportunity Zones can The post Investments in ‘people and places’ start to demonstrate impact in Opportuni

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Bitter Cold Stops Coal But Nuclear Excels

Jim Conca

Through thick and thin, extreme hot or extreme cold, Bomb Cyclones and Polar Vortexes, this nuclear plant never seems to stop producing over 9 billion kWhs of energy every year, enough to power Seattle. The same with all other nuclear plants in America. Not so much with coal and gas.

Energy 448
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Is this the microgrid moment?

GreenBiz

California's planned power shutdowns have communities, cities and companies scrambling for solutions, and microgrids are at the top of the list.

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Rivian to provide skateboard chassis for electric Lincoln SUV

Charged

Last November, Rivian turned heads with its prototype pickup and SUV. Among those impressed was Ford, which invested $500 million in the EV startup and said it would use Rivian’s custom “skateboard” chassis, which includes electric motors, batteries, controls and suspension, to develop its own EV. Now Ford has announced that its first skateboard vehicle will be an all-wheel-drive Lincoln SUV, to be launched in mid-2022 (remember, Rivian plans to begin production of its own R1S SUV in early 2021)

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This tiny farmhouse features a quaint reading nook

Inhabitat - Innovation

New York-based tiny home builder Willowbee Tiny Homes has managed to combine a comfy farmhouse aesthetic with a sophisticated and space-efficient tiny home.

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This book put me to sleep

GatesNotes

In a good way! The author explains the benefits of a good night’s rest.

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Food Waste: $2.4 Trillion Left Rotting in a Heap

CleanTech Group

Figure 1 Food Waste innovation landscape The scale of the problem The scale of the global food waste problem is astonishing. We waste.

Waste 159
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The Environmental Impact Of Caribbean Tourism Undermines Its Economic Benefit

Forbes Green Tech

The Caribbean region’s pursuit of tourism-driven economic growth overlooks a significant environmental burden- the sector is responsible for up to 97% of national carbon emissions.

Carbon 105
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How to select a solar charge controller

Solar Power World

By Douglas Grubbs, applications engineer, Morningstar Corporation In its basic forms, solar PV is a very straightforward proposition. Hook a solar panel up to a DC load and it will run until the sun goes down. Connect solar panels to a grid-tied inverter and, as long as the sun is shining, power will be sent… The post How to select a solar charge controller appeared first on Solar Power World.

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The head and the heart: Why science and art should work together

Grist

It’s no secret that scientists often struggle to explain their research in the most approachable way. Beakers, lab coats, and thermal cyclers broadcast “competent,” but not exactly warm and relatable. Plenty of scientists have upended this stereotype — thanks, Bill Nye — but for some, communicating is like, um, rocket science. A recent report makes the case that collaborating with people who consider themselves artists — musicians, actors, wordsmiths — could help them out

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As Fracking Companies Face Bankruptcy, US Regulators Enable Firms to Duck Cleanup Costs

DeSmogBlog

Read time: 9 mins In over their heads with debt, U.S. shale oil and gas firms are now moving from a boom in fracking to a boom in bankruptcies. This trend of failing finances has the potential for the U.S. public, both at the state and federal levels, to be left on the hook for paying to properly shut down and clean up even more drilling sites. Expect these companies to try reducing their debt through the process of bankruptcy and, like the coal industry , attempting to get out of environmental

Energy 129
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The Purpose of Capital: The Musical

Impact Alpha

ImpactAlpha, Oct. 9 – And now for something completely different… When Jed Emerson released “The Purpose of Capital” last year, he and video producer Mia Haugen, who are married, considered a promotional video “standing on windswept Norwegian tundra, looking deep and thoughtful as my voiceover reads sections of the book,” as Emerson recalls. “We immediately abandoned that The post The Purpose of Capital: The Musical appeared first on ImpactAlpha.

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America’s Nuclear Navy Still The Masters Of Nuclear Power

Jim Conca

America’s Nuclear Navy is one of the oldest and largest nuclear organizations in the world, and has the world’s best safety record of any industry of any kind. There are over a hundred nuclear reactors, which are actually small modular reactors, that power 86 submarines and aircraft carriers.